The Longest Wait
by Face of Poe
Summary: Set during Dark Nest: Joiner King- a missing scene one-shot exploring just how Jaina and Zekk ended up waking together on Jwlio... rated for suggestiveness but not a romance per say...


**A/N**: This is set before the chapter where Jaina and Zekk wake up together in _Joiner King_… just a mild speculative look at what _could_ have happened the night before…

**Disclaimer: **Everything belongs to LucasFilms and Troy Denning… I'm just playing with those unfortunately missing moments ;-)

**The Longest Wait**

His piercing emerald eyes smoldered as, under heavy lids, he watched her dance, moving gracefully among the Killiks and the Joiners, brushing forearms with the latter and rubbing her arms in imitation against the antennae of the former.

The sweet scent of membrosia was everywhere.

His own head was pleasantly light from intoxication, and he smiled absently as he saw groups of Taat and Unu drifting away in one direction to the Harem Cave, groups of two, three, four Joiners departing together in another, heading away… down to the dormitories…

Even the Joiners managed to participate in the Dance of Union.

Zekk brushed against a Falleen but his eyes never left Jaina as he touched arms with the Joiner. The membrosia was affecting him more strongly than he liked to admit to himself. His reservations, his careful restraint when it came to his link with Jaina… why should he be so worried about them? Unu was here, the nests were happy and mating, a sense of peace and prosperity filled the air… mixed with the sweet scent of membrosia…

She looked up and caught his eye, smiling softly before returning to the dance, leaning forward in time with the music to rub arms against a meter-high Unu Killik. Zekk struggled to remember why it was that he and Jaina were still here, why they had not already departed to join many of the others in the dormitory…

When he focused again, Jaina had been swept along in the dance, several meters further away from Zekk than she had been. He scowled upon seeing a Duros Joiner, stumbling in inebriated excess, rub forearms against her and then take her hand to steady himself. Jaina simply laughed.

A constant stream of emotion and sensation drifted through his mind. Contentedness, purpose, accomplishment… largely from the Killiks. From the Joiners… belonging, tranquility… pleasure…

Two Twi'leks and a Chiss stumbled away from the dance, arm in arm in arm, and Zekk growled low in his throat before breaking ranks of the dance and striding purposefully forward, dodging several beings of many species on his way towards finding- and claiming- the only one he'd ever wanted.

She sensed his coming through some foggy combination of their months-long Jedi mind-meld and the slowly growing link they shared with the colony. Turning, his stomach clenched at the broad smile on her face, the adoration in her somewhat absent eyes… they stood a meter apart for a minute while the dance continued around them, and then Zekk found himself taking her hand in his, coaxing her forward, away from the massive crowds.

Her small hand fit perfectly in his larger one; he couldn't tell if that was his own thought or hers, but it didn't matter, because it was the complete and honest truth.

How he managed to locate the dormitories through the haze of membrosia, and the ever-stronger sensations from the dozens of other beings and species nearby was a mystery. With complete confidence, Jaina danced lightly along after him, giggling once or twice as they descended lower and deeper, until they finally reached the maze of sleeping cells and sunken beds… many of the full Joiners were already here, none of them seemed to be alone.

Ah- an empty cell. With a thought, the two of them stepped off of the elevated walkway side-by-side, still holding hands, hips brushing against each other…

And then he was on her, leaning forward to capture her lips in a bruising kiss, her arms were wrapping lazily around his neck, and she stood on tiptoes as she pressed her body against his, leaning up into his kiss.

He hummed low in his throat and reached down, wrapping his own arms tightly around her waist and, taking the hint, she swung her left leg up to hook above his hip. He quickly hoisted her, supporting her as the right leg followed. Plundering her mouth, he backed up into the bed and sat, bringing his hands up to support her back as she settled herself over him, straddling his waist…

Wondering why they hadn't done this months ago… _years_ ago- was that his thought or hers?- Zekk reached a hand up to the collar of her jumpsuit and began deftly unfastening it, pulling the fabric aside agonizingly slowly as he forced her head back and ravaged her throat, kissing, sucking, biting while she gasped and hummed against him, making small vibrations against his lips.

The green in his eyes darkened nearly to black in anticipation as he completed unfastening the jumpsuit to her waist, leaving her in a small, white undershirt that only served to make Zekk want to tear it away after the painstaking labor of getting this far…

With a knowing and mischievous glint in her eyes, Jaina swung herself off of his lap and sat by his side on the bed, leaning over to unfasten her boots. Zekk reached up and began pulling her loosened jumpsuit from her shoulders, planting open-mouthed kisses along her upper arms and back as he revealed more and more skin.

When her boots were gone, Jaina stood and shed the jumpsuit like a second skin, and Zekk just stared at her lightly-clothed form, longing and anticipation building slowly but strongly in his gut as she approached him, climbing back onto his lap and reaching down to unclasp his utility belt before pulling it away, opening the front of his robe in the process. Her small, warm hands instantly were pressed to his chest and she leaned into him as he put one arm around her waist, another around her back, pulling her flush against him as his mouth again sought hers. They were both murmuring low in their throats, humming their excitement, their pleasure…

Something in Zekk was celebrating, accomplishment flooding both of their senses as he realized that he finally had her, that after watching her fall first for the older Kyp Durron and then Jagged Fel, the young pilot, finally she was _his_, he who had loved her the longest out of any of them…

And then thoughts were racing through his mind of Jag Fel, and he could remember their first kiss, a stolen evening in her cabin aboard the _Ralroost_, a romantic interlude after the war tinged with heart-breaking distance and awkwardness as Jaina withdrew from the relationship and couldn't understand why…

Zekk stilled and sighed, and sensed Jaina clicking nervously in the back of her throat. Hugging her to him, he fought the excess of membrosia still fogging his brain, fought the emotions still flooding in all around them from the Joiners who had forgotten any and all reservations and were floating on a tide of their own arousal and pleasure…

"I'm sorry," he murmured, kissing the top of her head and she seemed to curl up against him, tucking her head against his neck.

Emotion flooded him as she expressed her own guilty feelings through their bond, her apology for ruining it by thinking of another, and Zekk silently reminded her that _he_ thought of Fel first and it wasn't her fault, and it certainly wasn't her fault if she still had feelings for the Chiss-raised pilot and he had no place stepping in while those feelings were still raw and painful, had no place using the excuse of the Dance of Union to sweep her away like he had…

"Shh," she murmured against him, urging him to cease the flow of guilty emotions. "Hold me."

Together, moving fluidly around each other, they settled down on the bed and he drew her into his arms, taking comfort in her presence and her own feelings of contentedness at being there with him, knowing that she held no grudge no ill-will for his lingering feelings towards her that she could feel every moment yet did not reciprocate.

He had loved her longest; he could keep waiting.

**A/N:** Thanks for reading!


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